No rest for the International GT Open: right after Brands Hatch, the series is getting ready towards the fifth round of the season. Teams, cars and drivers are heading South, to the Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet, on the shores of the Mediterranean, where great weather can be expected on both race days, contrarily to what seen so far this season! After the Winter Series in March, this will be the first championship event at the Paul Ricard, the emblematic circuit that has taken its name from the beverage industrialist who created it at the end of the Sixties.
It is more than the second half of the season that will start this weekend, as the Brands Hatch results completely re-opened the games, narrowing the gaps in the standings of both the scratch and the GTS category. Five teams are now within 22 points (representing exactly a win’s reward) in the overall standings, with three manufacturers in contention: Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche. No doubt that the top French team in the series, Raymond Narac-Patrick Pilet of IMSA Performance, will want to shine and conquer their maiden win of the season at home. The Porsche drivers are currently third in the standings, behind the leading pair, Nick Tandy-Marco Holzer (Manthey Porsche) and Brands’ heroes Álvaro Barba-Matteo Malucelli (Villois Aston Martin), while the Ferraris of Bruni-Leo, Peter-Broniszewski and Montermini-López are also shortening distances.
In GTS, the British round produced a new leader, Kessel’s young pair composed of Daniel Zampieri-Michael Dalle Stelle, who have a one-point advantage over Archie Hamilton-Marco Mapelli (Autorlando Porsche) and 6 over Stefano Bizzari on the other Ferrari by AF Corse.
23 cars have been entered to the French round, which will see a number of teams returning after missing the trip to Britain. This is the case of Drivex with its two Porsches, of Reiter’s Lamborghini, of the Ombra Racing Ferrari, and of Unzurrunzaga’s Mosler. A ‘local’ addition is the Ferrari 458 GT3 of Frenchmen Steve Hiesse and Cédric Mézard.
The Paul Ricard round will enjoy the usual exhaustive TV coverage, live or slightly deferred, offered notably by Motors TV at pan-European level and key national broadcasters such as Raisportdue (Italy), Sport1+ (Germany), Teledeporte and Canal + Deportes (Spain), Sport TV (Portugal) and Orange Sport TV (Poland), to name just a few.
As usual, the European F3 Open and the FIA Formula 2 partner with the GT Open for this French round, with fans and holiday-makers having the possibility of enjoying a great race programme, which includes high-level mono-brand championships as the Trofeo Maserati World Series and the Radical Cup.
Source : International GT Open